


Night at the Bar

by Akurei5



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Emotional Hurt, F/M, Friendship/Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:19:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27766633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akurei5/pseuds/Akurei5
Summary: An expanded conversation of that scene in the bar during season 3 when Lee asks Chief Tyrol, "do you ever think about Sharon?" Tyrol/Boomer & Helo/Athena & Lee/Kara
Relationships: Galen Tyrol/Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, Karl "Helo" Agathon/Sharon "Athena" Agathon, Lee "Apollo" Adama/Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
Kudos: 13





	Night at the Bar

Lee Adama sat alone at the corner of the bar sipping his gin and tonic. His uniform jacket was unbuttoned, and his appearance was somewhat disheveled. Chief Tyrol came up to the bar and sat next to Lee.

“Barkeep, could I get another beer?” Tyrol asked the bartender. His empty glass was soon replaced by a full one. Tyrol then took a big sip of his cold drink.

Lee turned to briefly look at Tyrol before taking another sip of his own drink.

“How you doin’ there, Chief?” Lee asked.

“Oh, you know…” Tyrol trailed off, but then continued, “why does everything got to be so frakkin’ complicated?”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Lee replied.

It was obvious Tyrol had something on his mind. Who on the ship wasn’t undergoing some personal struggle or conflict? Sometimes in the company of good friends, it was nice to be able to talk about things candidly. It was therapeutic in a way to get things off one’s chest. At times, the bar could almost function as a confessional. This was one such occasion where Lee and Tyrol opened up to each other about their personal struggles in a way that they had never done with anyone else.

Tyrol glanced over at Lee for a second before taking another swig of his beer.

“Major, mind if I ask you a personal question?” Tyrol asked.

Lee twirled his drink around in his hand before responding, “Ask away!”

“Do you love Dee? I mean…do you really love her?” Tyrol asked cautiously.

Lee immediately stopped twirling his glass, and his whole body completely froze at this question. After a second, the ice in glass stopped moving as well. Deep down, Lee knew the answer. But he couldn’t bring himself to say it, out of respect for her if nothing else. Then he took a swig of his drink. Instead, Lee answered Tyrol’s question by asking one of his own,

“Do you love Cally?”

This question elicited the same gut reaction from Tyrol. _I definitely do_ , Tyrol thought to himself, _but…maybe not in the way I’m supposed to…considering I’m her husband_.

“Fair enough,” Tyrol replied.

Lee slowly downed the last sip in his glass. Afterwards, he took a deep and heavy sigh.

“Barkeep, another round please!” Lee requested.

The barkeeper poured Lee another gin and tonic.

“Third drink…that's when everything frakked up in life starts to make a little more sense,” Lee joked.

Tyrol took another sip of his beer. Both had a buzz going, and Lee decided to take the conversation into even more uncomfortable territory.

“Chief, do you ever think about Sharon?” Lee asked.

“No,” Tyrol replied unflinchingly.

And by no, of course Tyrol didn’t mean no, he didn’t think about Boomer. He meant no as in…don’t go there…don’t open that door.

Lee asked the question again more earnestly. This time Tyrol responded with an even firmer “no.” But Lee could infer the true meaning behind it.

“What about you? Do you think about Kara?” Tyrol asked trying to shift the focus of the conversation away from him and Boomer. He didn’t want to talk about Boomer; it was too painful a subject…but in a way, he did want to talk about her because maybe expressing his innermost thoughts on this might relieve some of his pain; he was tired of keeping this bottled up inside him.

“Well, I see her every day, so…it’s hard not to,” Lee replied.

“Did you ever try telling her how you feel?” Tyrol asked.

“Yeah. Yep, I did try that,” Lee responded.

“And?...What happened after that?” Tyrol asked.

“Well…she married Sam Anders. And…I go to the bar and get drunk every night. That’s what happened after that,” Lee replied in a seemingly defeated tone of voice.

“It seemed like you two had patched things up for a while after the exodus from New Caprica,” Tyrol commented.

Lee downed another swig of his drink and took a moment before replying, “yeah, I thought so too. But…uh…I don’t know…I guess we drifted apart again. Sometimes I think I understand her…but just when I think I’ve got her figured out…she does something crazy and jumps ship…and then once I think I’ve lost her for good…she’s there again.”

“Anyways, what about you? You see Sharon every day. Or at least someone who looks just like her,” Lee said shifting the focus of the conversation back to Tyrol as if hitting the tennis ball back into his court.

After hearing Lee talk about his problems, Tyrol felt more comfortable opening up.

“Their personalities are actually quite different. When I first saw Sharon…let me rephrase that, when I first saw Athena…it brought back all the memories. It came back like a torrent. It was almost even more painful than when Boomer died,” Tyrol lamented, “but once I got to know her a little, it was clear she wasn’t the Sharon I knew. Once I realized that, I was able to separate myself from it. Even though she has memories of Boomer and I together, it’s obvious she loves Helo and not me.”

“Helo! Where’s that jerk anyways? He ought to be at the bar…with us…havin’ a drink,” Lee said trying to lighten the mood a little.

“Where else would he be? He’s at home with his wife and kid,” Tyrol replied.

“What a loser!” Lee scoffed; the sarcasm was evident in his voice.

“Yeah, I’ll say,” Tyrol retorted, “He’s married to a woman he loves more than anything. He’d frakkin’ do anything for her. He was even ready to leave the fleet with her and fly into deep space…alone…just to prevent his child from being aborted.”

Tyrol took a swig of his beer before continuing, “And she’d do anything for him. She betrayed her own people…the only family she ever knew…and for what…to be put through hell when she got here. And she did it all just to be with him.”

“It’s like they’ve been through so much together…that they’ve formed this unbreakable bond,” Lee commented about Helo and Athena while mental images of his last night with Kara on New Caprica and them embracing after the boxing match flooded his mind.

Tyrol nodded.

“You can see it when they’re together…when they look into each other’s eyes…they’re in their own little world together…and nothing…nobody else gets inside,” Tyrol said as he reflected on his time with Boomer and what they had together…or what he thought they had…or wished they had.

“Like I said, frakkin’ loser,” Lee derided Helo again, but only in jest…and maybe a bit of envy.

Tyrol chuckled.

“Barkeep, shot of whisky for the major and me!” Tyrol requested.

“You haven’t finished your beer yet,” the barkeeper snapped at him.

“All in due course,” Lee chimed in.

“Whatever, I ain’t your Pa,” the barkeeper retorted.

After the barkeeper poured each of them a shot, they toasted to the Galactica and then downed their shots in one gulp. Lee was curious about something Tyrol had said earlier, so he decided to probe a little more.

“You said that seeing Athena was more painful than when Boomer died. Why was that?” Lee asked.

“When Boomer died…I still thought of her as a machine that had manipulated and deceived us,” Tyrol said coldly and sternly, “but when I saw Athena, the way she interacted with people, and the self-sacrifice she exhibited for her unborn child, I became convinced that her emotions were real…that she was a real person…that her love for Helo was real. And if that were the case, then maybe Boomer’s love…”

Tyrol abruptly stopped as his voice started to crack up a little. This caught Lee’s attention as he looked over at Tyrol. Lee thought he saw a few tears fall from Tyrol’s face, but he couldn’t be sure.

Tyrol cleared his throat before continuing, “maybe Boomer’s fears, her dreams…maybe they were real too. That’s the hardest and most painful part to think about. Frak! It would have been easier to accept that she was just a machine that had faked all those emotions.”

“She loved you, Chief. Maybe she still does…if she’s out there on some Cylon ship somewhere,” Lee said wishing to console Tyrol. But now he was kicking himself for having just said that because it came out sounding like he was trying to give Tyrol a false sense of hope.

“Yeah. Love wasn’t the problem,” Tyrol said calmly as if now trying to assess the situation more dispassionately, “we both loved each other…deeply. But…looking at Helo and Athena, they undoubtedly have something that Boomer and I didn’t.”

“Yeah? And what’s that?” Lee asked, curious at what Tyrol was getting at.

“Trust. Absolute trust in one another,” Tyrol paused before continuing, “Helo and Athena both knew the situation when they came on Galactica. Everything they went through, they got through it together…because they each had absolute faith in the other person. That’s how they were able to overcome everything. Before Boomer’s programming kicked in causing her to shoot the old man, she was scared and confused…and I wasn’t there for her. I was also confused…and unsure of what to make of her erratic behavior. I can’t help thinking that if I had had more faith in her, more faith in us, maybe I could’ve helped her overcome her programming or something. Maybe things would’ve turned out differently. Maybe I could’ve saved her.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe there’s nothing you could’ve done. Even if you had reached out, which I think you did…” Lee said.

Tyrol abruptly cut him off, “I could’ve done more.”

“Even so,” Lee continued, “she would’ve had to have met you halfway. That type of inextricable bond that Helo and Athena share…that takes two…it takes both parties to come together. Boomer might not have been able to do that.”

While saying this, Lee was reflecting on his relationship with Kara…and how he felt that he had reached out to her and placed his trust in her, but she was too unstable to reciprocate. He thought about that night on New Caprica with Kara and her emotional betrayal the next morning when she suddenly married Sam Anders. It was such a shock to him. He knew that Kara wasn’t being malicious…just capricious. But that didn’t make it hurt any less. Lee didn’t blame himself as there was no way for him to see that coming. That’s just who Kara was. Despite the pain she had caused him, he wasn’t even upset with her…more than anything all he wanted was to hold her in his arms right now. It frustrated him to no end. Despite this, there was a sort of deep trust between them. Kara would always be there for him…as a friend, an ally, a comrade, someone he could, without question, trust his life with in battle. But Lee wanted more…and this was something she couldn’t give him…she couldn’t meet him halfway…and there wasn’t much he could do about it.

“That doesn’t make it any easier,” Tyrol said.

“I know,” Lee replied before downing the last of his drink. He stood up and buttoned up his uniform.

“Look, I gotta get going, Chief. The longer I put off going home, the worse the fallout will be when I get there. Thanks for the drink,” Lee said.

“Anytime,” Tyrol said.

“Take it easy!” Lee said patting Tyrol on the shoulder in a display of brotherly affection before turning and heading for the exit to the bar.


End file.
